When I started out mountain biking I had the naive view that anything to do with bikes must be cheap. A couple of years on and I cringe at how much stuff I've got and how much I've spent. And then I started thinking about how much it is actually costing me to ride each kilometre and the figures get quite scary. At the moment I reckon it's about $1.50 per kilometre or more. Okay, so I'm still finding excuses to spend money on yet more stuff (all absolutely necessary of course) but I think this should tail off considerably in the next month or two. But I thought this about 8 months ago and my spending history since then is most probably the wost its ever been. Is this a common problem? Does it ever end? Do you know of a good counsellor?

When my wife fell pregnant with our daughter; she would ned to hand back her company car for maternity leave.

No problem live close to town, work in town; I'll buy me a bike. Best Idea I;ve ever had - love it.

Got a Shogun Metro SE Hybrid from Wooleys Wheels and slowly added bits to the orignal 700$ ish ride (with locks and lights etc) slowly crept up in price. My car gets around 600 K to the tank in town at (then $50 a tank) had to do a lot of riding to make it worthwhile (not counting rego wear and tear etc.

Outgrew the Metro and built myself a 29er. Best of everything has gone into her and yet I still find more accutments. $4k and counting on that puppy (all good).

Recently won a BMC fourstroke which another $4K ride; yet not quite perfect so have been putting money into her too (new front shocks are next on the agenda $1000 + department alone).

Not to mention making my wife's ride better (whether she wants it or not) I'd say it's costing me about $1.20 a K presently.

Do I really care about how much I spend? No I guess not. And you're right about it keeping you sane although everyone else thinks you're a bit of a nut.

Even the wife seems to overlook all the purchases that I make. I'm happier and fitter and that seems to make it all worthwhile. Also, I am now much more understanding of her own little spending sprees.

And here I sit 48 hours away from the Highland Fling with a real sense of excitement. It's almost like being a kid again before Christmas. And it's at times like these that the whole expense of the sport seems very irrelevant.

Hmm... did I buy enough Gu? May need to pop down the bike shop at lunchtime.